Recently swapped to wasd - issues

haaammit

haaammit

haaammit

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I've recently changed to wasd and it's fine with things thing Minecraft, but I've loaded up GTA IV and I'm all over the place.

Been playing with arrow keys for almost 30 years - decided to make the change to help my daughter learn the better way, but I'm really struggling with controlling all the things with my left (non-dominant hand) whilst my right hand just changes the cam angle. What am I mising?
 
haaammit said:
I've recently changed to wasd and it's fine with things thing Minecraft, but I've loaded up GTA IV and I'm all over the place.

Been playing with arrow keys for almost 30 years - decided to make the change to help my daughter learn the better way, but I'm really struggling with controlling all the things with my left (non-dominant hand) whilst my right hand just changes the cam angle. What am I mising?
Click to expand...

Er it's a brain and muscle memory thing, I too play with arrow keys and have lately being tying to swap to WASD keys and like you I'm all over the place, but I guess it's all about relearning, at some point if you stick to it, it will become natural.
 
I played with arrow keys for many years before switching to wasd. To be honest I found it OK switching, but I am left handed. One thing I would say would be to try to move the keyboard and mouse closing together so you're arms aren't stretched out. This will reduce any arm or shoulder strain.
 
A basic little thing I used to do when getting used to the WASD setup was to play the original Half Life and run the first section of the Hazard Course which had you walking down a fenced pathway.

I only allowed myself to use WASD to navigate it with no mouse touching at all - didn't take me long to figure things out. Bit old school but it might work for you? :)
 
Narj said:
In all honesty if I was learning from scratch, I'd go for ESDF!
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I use ESDF. Mostly because of the nipple on the 'F', for orientation.

I'm not sure it's better than WASD otherwise, though. My little finger is crap, and the big buttons (shift, CAPS etc) are that bit further away with ESDF.

Used to have it set up with A and G for lean, but games don't usually let you lean any more, so that advantage has gone.
 
cheesyboy said:
I use ESDF. Mostly because of the nipple on the 'F', for orientation.

I'm not sure it's better than WASD otherwise, though. My little finger is crap, and the big buttons (shift, CAPS etc) are that bit further away with ESDF.

Used to have it set up with A and G for lean, but games don't usually let you lean any more, so that advantage has gone.
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Depends on your hands, I suppose...

To be honest, all of my niggles with needing surrounding buttons disappeared after buying a RAT7 - I just map all the keys I need to the mouse buttons using the profiler. Best thing for gaming enjoyment I ever bought! Hat switch towards me for reload feels natural! :)
 
I always used to use arrow keys, until I got Half Life. Took a bit of getting used to, but after a few weeks it's like second nature. And WAAAAY better.
 
I should say it's more the leaning on the motorbike I'm having issues with - before I'd use arrow keys with my right hand and my left hand would do the leaning up and down, whereas using wasd obviously means my left hand is doing the movement AND leaning, as my right hand is now on the mouse!

I'm not explaining it very well I think - I guess perseverance will work in the end :)
 
Are you saying you have switched mouse hand or that you didn't use the mouse before?

I went from arrow keys to home,del,end,pgdn to numpad 8,4,5,6 :p
 
Are you guys left handed or something? I don't think I've used the arrow keys since I was a kid. I thought wasd was the standard now.
 
haaammit said:
I've recently changed to wasd and it's fine with things thing Minecraft, but I've loaded up GTA IV and I'm all over the place.

Been playing with arrow keys for almost 30 years - decided to make the change to help my daughter learn the better way, but I'm really struggling with controlling all the things with my left (non-dominant hand) whilst my right hand just changes the cam angle. What am I mising?
Click to expand...

30 years of muscle memory isn't something you can undo in a couple of evenings. But stick with it because it is 100% worth learning how to play with WASD (or a similar combo if it suits you better) + mouse. It may take a few weeks but all of a sudden it will just click and start to feel more natural. Eventually you won't want to go back and will wish you'd made the switch sooner.

I say this as someone who once used arrow keys exclusively too (a long time ago) and forced myself to retrain and have never looked back. You just have to push through the awkward phase when it feels like you'll never master it. If you've ever tried to learn a musical instrument, it's a similar process of getting your fingers to a point where you no longer need to concentrate on what they are doing.
 
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